Ric Wilson grew up in Alsip and Blue Island on Chicago's far south side, and didn't go north of Little Village until he was 17 — music and activism came from the same place, the congregation at the city's historic Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church. He later studied engineering at Clark Atlanta University under producer Sonny Digital before bringing those tools back home.
His 2016 single 'Soul Bounce,' a funk/house/bachata/rock hybrid, set the template for a run of genre-crossing EPs — Negrow Disco and Banba — that established him as one of Chicago's more unpredictable rap exports. He followed with the Terrace Martin-produced collaborative album They Call Me Disco, then Clusterfunk with Chromeo and A-Trak, and 2025's America Runs on Disco.